Veteran journalist Paul Bauman, based in Sacramento, covers Northern California professional, collegiate and junior tennis. Contact him at norcaltennisczar@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @norcaltenczar.

Saturday, February 18, 2017

Virginia advances in Indoors; rain hits 75K Tempe

Sacramento's Collin Altamirano, shown in 2014, plays
No. 1 singles for top-ranked Virginia. The Cavaliers,
who have won the last two NCAA titles, beat co-No. 7
UCLA in the quarterfinals of the ITA Nationl Men's
Team Indoor Championships. Photo by Paul Bauman

The Virginia and UCLA men's teams are both ranked in the top 10 with a Northern Californian in the singles lineup.
But it was no contest when the No. 1 Cavaliers and the co-No. 7 Bruins met today in the quarterfinals of the ITA National Men's Team Indoor Championships. Virginia, the host and two-time defending NCAA champion, routed UCLA 4-0 in Charlottesville, Va.
The Cavaliers' Collin Altamirano, a junior from Sacramento, and the Bruins' Logan Staggs, a 5-foot-9 (1.75-meter) junior from Tracy, trailed when their matches were abandoned. Martin Redlicki, ranked 73rd, led Altamirano 6-3, 4-2 on Court 1, and Alexander Ritschard was ahead of Staggs 7-5, 1-1 on Court 5.
Altamirano won in doubles on Court 3 with J.C. Aragone. Staggs did not play doubles.
Virginia will face defending champion and No. 5-ranked North Carolina, which defeated No. 4 Cal 4-2, in a rematch of last year's final.
Bears junior Billy Griffith, a Fresno resident ranked 40th, lost to Robert Kelly 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 on Court 4 but won in doubles with Andre Goransson on Court 2. Cal's J.T. Nishimura, a junior from San Jose, trailed in doubles on Court 3 with Bjorn Hoffmann when their match was abandoned. Nishimura did not play singles.Men's Challenger -- Rain wiped out play in the $75,000 Tempe (Ariz.) Challenger. The singles semifinals and final and the doubles final are scheduled for Sunday.
In the first singles semifinal, No. 7 seed Dennis Novikov of Milpitas in the San Francisco Bay Area will meet unseeded countryman Tennys Sandgren for the first time. After the doubles final, sixth-seeded Teymuraz
Gabashvili of Russia will play unseededNikola Milojevic of Serbia.
Novikov ousted No. 1 seed Ernesto Escobedo of West Covina in the Los Angeles area in the quarterfinals.